This reminds of those clips of Orr wizzing around the ice. He circles his own end, speeds up the boards and blows by two or three players on the way to the oppositions net. Each of these players he goes past have their hands on their sticks and unable to step infront of him to impede his progress, they try vainly to turn and skate after him.
This would simply not happen in todays game. er... yesterdays game. when there was a game.
The first guy he went by would slash and hook his arms with his stick, the second player would swing his stick in one hand in front of Orr and use that arm to grab-and-let-go... Orr is now struggling to move at half his previous speed when he runs into player #3... say Derian Hatcher... a fellow known for his exceptional skill at putting both fists with stick into the puck carriers face with rarely garnering any kind of penalty at all. So now Mr. Orr is on his keister while the play races back the other direction... to get halted by the same style of hockey at around the blue line.
I agree the refs can't be shouldering the responsibility for this. The whole league has to make the decision to stop using these kinds of tactics.
I don't want to pick on the Flames too much in this example, as every team uses tons of this stuff in the post season, but I felt they simply raised this kind of hockey to a completely new level. Perhaps because they had so much team speed one could forgive them for it, but the last playoffs were definitely a perfect example of how far things have fallen.
Hands on sticks, no sticks on arms, bodies or legs. No "offensive style" padding, and body padding for goalies that doesn't exceed 2 inches... other than the leg pads and chest protector. Plus a catching glove that is say, half the size of what was used last season. You want a curved stick? Help yourself! No forward passes by the goalie behind the uh... goal line?
Wooo Hooo !
